Morgan Geyser, now 15, lured Payton Leutner to the woods before tackling her to the ground and stabbing her 'everywhere' as her friend Anissa Weier urged her on

A schoolgirl who stabbed her classmate 19 times to please the fictional character Slenderman cried in court as she recounted the attack.

Morgan Geyser, now 15, lured Payton Leutner to a woodland clearing in Waukesha, Wisconsin, before tackling her to the ground and stabbing her 'everywhere' as her friend Anissa Weier urged her on.

Leutner, who like her attackers was 12 at the time, survived the attack by crawling out of the trees and flagging down a passing cyclist.

Geyser told the court: 'Anissa and I took [her] in the forest and said that we were going to play hide and seek.'

'Anissa said that she couldn't do it and that I had to. I tackled her. I stabbed her.'

Geyser pleaded guilty to first-degree intentional homicide over the 2014 stabbing in an agreement with prosecutors to avoid prison time.

The plea agreement calls for Geyser to be found not guilty by reason of insanity, meaning she will be committed to a mental hospital for 40 years.

Morgan Geyser, left, is seen in court on September 29, while Anissa Weier, right, is pictured on February 20

Leutner, who like her attackers was 12 at the time, miraculously survived the attack by crawling bleeding from the woods and flagging down a passing cyclist. She is seen here in a photo provided by her family in 2017

Anthony Cotton, Geyser's attorney, says she is remorseful for the attack and wrote the letter without prompting from anyone.

Her co-defendant Weier pleaded guilty to a reduced charge last month and faces at least three years in a mental hospital.

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Earlier this year a spokesperson for Lautner's family issued a statement to People magazine saying that the now 15-year-old is thriving as a high school freshman.

'Today, Payton is a strong young woman who is excelling in school and doing many things that a teenager would do with her family and friends,' the spokesperson said.

WHO IS SLENDER MAN?

The Slender Man is a fictional character prevalent on the internet after originating as a meme in 2009.

The mythical creature is often depicted as an unnaturally tall, thin figure with a blank, featureless face, wearing a black suit.

The character is said to have long, tentacle-like arms, which can be extended to capture prey.

It is said to stalk, abduct and traumatize children and, depending on interpretations of the myth, can cause memory loss, insomnia and paranoia.

It is also said to be able to create distortions in photographs and teleport.

It is understood to have originated in a Photoshop contest on the Something Awful Forums in 2009.

It then went viral with numerous works of fan art and short scary stories published online known as 'creepypasta'.

The character has developed its own life online, with two feature-length films funded in part by Kickstarter appearing in 2012.

The meme that appears most is that of a tall malevolent figure, who silently stalks down his prey.

Last month, Weier pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted second-degree homicide, just weeks before her trial was set to begin.

Following the trial, the jury accepted her insanity plea, finding that she was not legally responsible.

Geyser, who was diagnosed with early onset-schizophrenia in 2014, is heavily medicated, though 'more lucid with the medication than she ever was'.

During a hearing in August, Weier said that she didn't want to harm Leutner and that the stabbing plot was Geyser's idea.

She said she participated because she was afraid of what would happen if she didn't.

'I believed that if I didn't go through with it, Slender Man would come and attack and kill myself, my friends and my family. Those I cared about the most,' she said.

Slender Man started with an online post in 2009, as a mysterious specter whose image people edit into everyday scenes of children at play.

He is typically depicted as a spidery figure in a black suit with a featureless white face.

He was regarded by his devotees as alternately a sinister force and an avenging angel.

The case has been the subject of public fascination, with video of the girls' police interrogations featured in the 2016 HBO documentary 'Beware the Slenderman.'

'Morgan jumped on top of Bella and started stabbing her repeatedly, and that's when I turned around because I couldn't stand to see that,' Weier tells police in the interrogation video, using a nickname for the victim.

Geyser, during her own police interview, claimed it was Weier who jumped on Leutner and 'held her to the floor.'

'I think Anissa stabbed her first, and then I continued.'

The Slender Man is a fictional character prevalent on the internet after originating as a meme in 2009